“When I see something wrong in government and I know how to fix it, then I step into public service,” Scott said. “I fix it then I go back, you know, to my life.”

Scott is a Vietnam veteran who still parachutes, snow skis and hunts in the mountains with his bird dogs, but he says playtime and retirement will have to wait.

With recent polls showing Scott trailing the pack, he likens himself to U.S. Sen. Rand Paul in 2010, saying he is not worried about the polling. But he is making a prediction of who will walk away on top on primary Tuesday.

“When the votes are counted May 19th Will T. Scott will be in the lead,” he said. “That’s the only poll that counts.”

GOP primary voters will have to decide between Scott, Agriculture Commissioner James Comer, former Louisville Metro Council member Hal Heiner and former U.S. Senate candidate Matt Bevin when they enter the polls May 19.

With major cash in the race Scott says he will work his ground game, saying he “knows what works on the ground.”

Scott is paying his operational expenses out of his own pocket, but he’s not worried about the cost to compete against two candidates who can self-fund in Heiner and Bevin.

“We’ll raise good money,” Scott said. “We have raised good money and we’ll have all the money in the world.”

Succinctly put, Scott says his team has “got game.”

“There’s nobody in this race that can match us at game or on the ground,” he said.

Calling Kentucky the “poster child” for pension liability, Scott said one of his main reasons to enter the race was to offer his solution to the problem — expanded gaming.

Kentuckians have heard the pitch before in campaigns, albeit not to fund state pensions but to create more revenue. Most recently the pitch came from current Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear.

“I think of Steve and Jane as friends of mine. … They’re good people, but they’re talking about gambling across Kentucky and for race tracks,” Scott said.

“I’m talking about keeping people from having to pay a tax and or gamble in the stock market with bond money, and I want to pay down the unfunded pension liability.”

Watch the interview above what Scott says he plans to do with the state’s Medicaid expansion.

Nick Storm

Nick Storm is the Anchor and Managing Editor of Pure Politics available exclusively on Spectrum News. Pure Politics is the only nightly program dedicated to Kentucky politics. Nick covers all of the political heavyweights and his investigative work brings to light issues that might otherwise go unnoticed, like his coverage of the backlog of DNA rape kits waiting to be tested in Kentucky. Nick is also working on a feature length bio documentary Outlaw Poet: A documentary on Ron Whitehead. Pure Politics airs weeknight at 7 and 11:30 on Spectrum News. Follow Nick on Twitter @NStorm_Politics. Nick can be reached at 502-792-1107 or nicholas.storm@charter.com.